Inspiration, ideas and information to help women build public speaking content, confidence and credibility. Denise Graveline is a Washington, DC-based speaker coach who has coached nearly 200 TEDMED and TEDx speakers--including one of 2016's most popular TED talks. She also has prepared speakers for presentations, testimony, and keynotes. She offers 1:1 coaching and group workshops in public speaking, presentation and media interview skills to both men and women.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Women's work is never done, they say--making it a natural topic when women give speeches. I've chosen 11 famous speeches by women about labor and work in advance of Labor Day, all from The Eloquent Woman Index of Famous Speeches by Women. The work in question runs the gamut. These speeches touch on everything from "leaning in," ironing and mommy-tracking to garment workers, coal miners, engineers, attorneys and more. Success and failure, discrimination and how to support workers are all themes in these modern and historic speeches. Click through for text, video or audio where available, and what you can learn for your own public speaking from these forthright women speakers:

Betty Friedan's 1970 call for a women's strikeled to women marching in the streets with signs that said "Don't iron while the strike is hot." This first president of the National Organization for Women wanted the strike to show the value of an undervalued source of labor, the housewife.

Ai-Jen Poo at the U.S. Social Forumfocused on the rights of today's domestic workers, her passion and cause. She's a modern-day organizer fighting for the rights of a new underclass.

Mother Jones's speech to West Virginia miners was a typical-for-her hell-raising speech--and the only reason we have the text is because the mine owners hired a stenographer, hoping to gather evidence that she was violent and dangerous.

Frances Perkins on the roots of Social Securitylooked back at this important support system for workers. The first U.S. Secretary of Labor, Perkins took inspiration from having heard Rose Schneiderman's Triangle Fire speech (see number 1, above) -- a moment she recalls in this much later speech.

Sheila Widnall on women in engineeringmade clear the small insults women engineers face, being called "Mrs." instead of "Doctor," and worse. Her forthright delivery helped make it acceptable to discuss these poor working conditions.